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Jim Seals and Dash Crofts were both born in Texas, Seals in Sidney and Crofts in Cisco. They first met when Crofts was a drummer for a local band. Later, Seals joined a band called Dean Beard and the Crew Cuts where he played guitar; later on Crofts joined the band. With Beard, they moved to Los Angeles to join The Champs, but the two did so only after the group's "Tequila" reached #1 in 1958. Seals also spent time during 1959 in the touring band of Eddie Cochran.

In 1963, Jimmy Seals, Dash Crofts, Glen Campbell, and Jerry Cole left The Champs to form a band named "Glen Campbell and the GCs" which played at The Crossbow in Van Nuys. The band only lasted a couple of years before the members went their separate ways. Crofts returned to Texas and Seals joined a band named The Dawnbreakers (a reference to a book by the same name about the beginnings of the Baha'i Faith). Crofts eventually returned to California to join The Dawnbreakers and thusly both Seals and Crofts were introduced to and became members of the Bahá'í Faith, however, the band turned out to be unsuccessful. Crofts married fellow Dawnbreaker Billie Lee Day in 1969 and Seals married Ruby Jean Anderson.

After the failure with The Dawnbreakers, the two decided to play as a duo, with Seals on guitar, saxophone and violin, and Crofts on guitar and mandolin. They signed a contract with the record division of Talent Associates (TA) in 1969 and released two LPs, of which, only the second reached the Billboard 200 chart, peaking at No. 122 in October 1970. The pair signed a new contract with Warner Bros. Records in August 1971.[2] Their first album with their new label did not break into the charts, but their second album Summer Breeze charted at No. 7 in 1972. The record sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in December 1972.[3]

After a long and successful run of recordings in the 1970s, the two lost their contract with Warner Brothers in 1980 and decided to set aside music for a while. They held a short reunion tour in 1991–1992 and appeared at several Bahá'í gatherings. Crofts lived in Mexico, Australia and then Nashville, Tennessee, playing country music and making occasional hit singles. Seals moved to Costa Rica and has lived on a coffee farm off and on since 1980, as well as in Nashville. Crofts currently resides on a ranch in the Texas hill country.

Seals and Crofts are longtime adherents of the Baha'i faith. A number of their songs contain Baha'i references, including passages from Baha'i scriptures. When they appeared in concert, they often remained on stage after the performance to talk about the faith while local Baha'is passed out literature to anyone interested.[4]

In 1991, Seals and Crofts reunited and performed until disbanding again a year later. In 2004, they reunited again and recorded their first new album since 1980, released as Traces.

In 2011, the bandmates' daughters Juliet Seals and Amelia Crofts, along with Genevieve Dozier, daughter of Seals & Crofts engineer Joey Bogan, formed a musical trio called The Humming Birds. They released their eponymous EP The Humming Birds in September 2012.

Seals is the brother of "England" Dan Seals, of "England Dan & John Ford Coley", and later a well known country music star. Dan Seals died of cancer in 2009. At the time of his death, Dan and Jimmy Seals had been working on songs together. [5] The status of those recordings is unknown.